Tag Archives: relaxers

Are you fed up with chemical relaxers that make your hair brittle and prone to breakage? Would you like to embrace your hair for it’s natural beauty? If so, you’re probably considering ‘going natural’. Natural hair, in the stylist-world, means hair that hasn’t been processed using a chemical relaxer.

If you currently have a chemical relaxer in your hair, you may be wondering how you can transition to natural hair. Luckily, transitioning is possible – without taking drastic measures like chopping your hair.

Since it takes about one year for the relaxer to grow out of your hair, I’ve assembled some tips on what to expect for the first six months when you decide to go natural. I’ll post a second blog soon on what to expect for months six to twelve.

What to Expect Months 1 – 3:

Big Roots

Since most women relax their hair as soon as their roots start growing in, it can be a shock to see some “puffy” hair at the roots. To fix this, start using shampoo, conditioner, and styling products that are suitable for natural (not relaxed) hair.

Dry Ends

Also, as your roots grow in, the ends of your hair will get brittle and weaker. To fix this, get your hair trimmed – just a little! There is no need to take off too much length.

New Styling Techniques

Your old styling techniques will start to become ineffective in dealing with your roots and brittle hair. I suggest switching to some new products. My favorite hair regime starts the Synergi Thermal Shampoo and Conditioner or the Hello Hydrate Shampoo and Conditioner www.synergisalon.com . Once you’ve washed your hair, use the Restore Leave-In Conditioner on your hair while it is still wet. When your hair is dry, continue to use the styling products that you normally use – but ONLY on your relaxed ends. Blow-dry your hair to ensure that the ends blend well with the roots.

What to Expect Months 3-6:

Unruly Growth

Your hair will have grown about 3 to 5 inches by this point and is probably thicker, longer, and seemingly more unruly than ever. At this point, you’ve come far enough that there is no turning back! It’s still a bit of an awkward stage, where you’ll find that your relaxed ends are thinner than your new growth. Continue to get regular trims to take care of breakage. How to know its time to get your ends trimmed http://curly2strait.com/trimming-natural-hair-how-to-tell-it-is-time-for-a-snip/

New Styling Techniques

With your hair getting longer and thicker, you’ll want to switch up your hair care regime again. My suggestion is to avoid using oil moisturizers on your hair before applying heat, if you’ve been flat-ironing. If the hair ‘smokes’ while blow drying or flat ironing, you’re damaging it. Continue to use Synergi Thermal Shampoo and Conditioner or Hello Hydrate Shampoo and Conditioner. Then use Restore Leave-In Conditioner between salon visits.

Transitioning to natural hair can seem like a long process, but it’s well worth the effort. Good luck and stay tuned for my next blog post where I cover what to expect during months 6-12.

It has been a few months since I last posted here, but it was all for a few great reasons! First, the Columbus Naturalistas is hosting (for the 4th year in a row), the International Natural Hair Meet-up Day (INHMD) on May 30, 2015. This is the most widely attended natural hair event in our city because we are committed to making it a memorable, informative, and empowering event for all. We have some amazing things in store for the event to make it even better than the year before! (Get your tickets HERE) Obviously, I’m swamped with planning, promoting, and managing the event details.

Second, I am starting the process of becoming a small business owner! That’s right, I’m following my dreams and turning my passion into profits (more on that later).

During the process of planning the INHMD event, I began developing a relationship with Karen Coleman, owner of Synergi Salon, one of Columbus’s most well-known and respected natural hair salons. Karen has been a hairdresser for 30+ years and started Synergi Salon to help women fall back in love with their natural hair (I love that!). Not only is she joining me for the INHMD event on our panel, she is a blogger as well! Beginning this month, I’ll be featuring some of her blog posts, which will focus on transitioning from relaxed to natural and all the things you can expect along the journey (excellent information for all of us!).

Here is the first installment:

6 Common Mistakes Naturals Make When They Go To A Salon

The modern natural hair movement has been exciting for women who want to kick the chemicals and celebrate their natural kinks and curls. However, going to a salon as a ‘natural’ – especially a new natural – can be confusing. A lot of the information can be questionable or conflicting. I’ve assembled my top hair tips here to help women unpack natural hair myths when they visit a salon.

Here are 6 common mistakes ‘naturals’ make when they go to a salon:

1. Following a trend because “everybody’s doing it”

Have you ever heard of jumping on the bandwagon? There is a lot of pressure to try out a new technique because it’s new and popular. Every month there is a new trend: co-washing, no-poo, baggying, Tangle Teezer, and so on. While these techniques can work for some women, it’s better to stick to tried and true techniques. Look for styles or products that will address your unique hair needs – and leave the fads at the door.

2. Participating in hair typing

While it’s nice to feel like you’re part of a group, at the end of the day your hair is as unique as you are. While your curls can look like someone else’s, it doesn’t mean that they will behave like them. Try to break free of hair typing and learn what works for your unique gorgeous locks.

3. Putting length on a pedestal

There’s a tonne of pressure to have long hair. And even more talk about how to make your ziggly, spirally and or coily hair appear longer. But why should length be the goal? Short hair can be just as beautiful as long hair. In fact, short hair can be fierce and fashion-forward. It’s time we stop setting restrictive beauty standards and realize that beauty comes at any hair length.

4. Fighting the frizz

Simply put: embrace your frizz! Telling women to de-frizz their hair is basically telling them to shave their head. Hair gets frizzy – it’s just part of life. The sooner we embrace it and celebrate it, the better. What I recommend for my clients is the Synergi Glaze and Mousse http://www.synergisalon.com. It truly helps to contain the frizz.

5. African American hair requires specific products

If you think that African America women require products that are marketed for their hair, think again! Hair is hair – and your hair may have more in common with a woman who is not the same color as you than a woman who is. Embrace curly hair and give a variety of products a try. Don’t limit yourself. Hair is hair!

6. Assuming natural is hard to manage

Sure, we all have our bad hair days. But natural hair doesn’t have to be hard to manage. Natural hair definitely has its learning curves but it’s a journey that will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration in the long run. Natural hair means no unnecessary breakage or split ends. If you keep your hair regime simple and consistent, you’ll soon be wishing you made the switch to natural years ago. All hair textures have their advantages and disadvantages, and their benefits and their challenges. Embrace your natural hair and celebrate your style! Check out our new hair calendar to see where you are in the process.

I decided it was the last time I would get a hair relaxer. The final straw came 3 months ago when my stylist gave me a style I did not want (again!), and I left the salon with lye burns on my sensitive scalp. All I could think about as I put ointment on my scalp to ease the pain was my first visit to Miss Simone’s Salon when I was 5 years old. I remember feeling so excited about getting my hair straightened for the first time. Now, I wished I had never set foot in that place!

Over the years, I came back to Miss Simone’s Salon monthly to get a touch up and deep condition, only to spend $80 to go home unsatisfied and in pain. Even with all that disappointment, I kept coming back because it was all I knew about hair care. Three months ago though, I had enough. After 20 years of getting relaxers, Continue reading →

Having their heads shaved, being forced to use sheep’s tools to maintain their hair, and having their traditions stolen from them left those enslaved feeling shamed, demoralized, and humiliated. These methods of dehumanizing slaves were just the beginning. Now in a foreign land controlled by people with fair skin and straight hair, African textured hair was attacked socially and labeled as inferior and repellent. In the 1700’s, advertisements, slave auction posters, and even the scientific community referred to African textured hair as “wool” as though it were not even human hair. This dehumanizing language served to validate the lower-class status and enslavement of Africans.

This racist rhetoric was internalized by many slaves but was also a requirement for some slaves such as laundresses, chauffeurs, cooks, and housekeepers. Those who worked inside the plantation houses had to present a look that appealed to their slave owners. Both circumstances lead to the creation of the first hair relaxer in order to straighten curly hair to appear more European. This concoction was a mixture of lye and potatoes. The potatoes were used to lessen the harsh effects of the lye. This early form of a relaxer was effective at straightening the hair for a period, but would often burn the scalp and damage the hair.

Today, there are a variety of hair relaxers available over-the-counter.

Today, many of the hair relaxers you can find over-the-counter and in your local beauty shop still contain lye and have the same damaging effects on the scalp and hair. It is also revolutionary that many products today are designed not just to straighten the hair but to bring out the natural curly texture as well. When I went natural five years ago, I was amazed by all the products available to me. Check out some of them under the “Jane’s Hair” tab!